"Yes!" I shouted, pumping my fist Tiger Woods-style as
I read the e-mail. The managing director of a new Atlanta-based
incubator had replied to our executive summary submission for our
start-up, PRessCafe.com, an
online hub for emerging technology companies and the media. His
message: "I'm interested in meeting to discuss your
business. How about Thursday at 2 p.m.?" Many aspiring
entrepreneurs never make it this far-a face-to-face meeting with a
"live" investor. And we did it!

Being 27 years old, married with two young daughters, and having
drained our savings and maxed out our credit cards to pay the
bills, this was especially welcome news for my wife and me. We
began daydreaming about the future: Where would we live? How big
would our house be? What cars would we drive? What private school
could we send our kids to?

But when it was time for me to present, along with our COO, I
froze. The investor began the meeting with this: "Tell me, in
two sentences or less, why your company must exist."
This threw me off in relation to the "canned" pitch I had
prepared. I blanked. To break the silence, I started to recite,
verbatim, the first paragraph of our executive summary (which, of
course, he had already read), and it became clear I wasn't
answering the question to his satisfaction. With each follow-up
question, I felt more and more intimidated-and frustrated. I could
sense our COO's feeling of helplessness as she watched me
stammer through the presentation. At the end of the hour, the
investor concluded that while we had a seedling of a business, we
had a ton of work to do to succeed in attracting outside
capital.

I felt dejected and embarrassed, dreading the thought of telling
my wife. How would I break the news to her? How would she respond?
At the same time, I was concerned about my partners. Would they
lose faith in the business.and me? How could I regain their
confidence? That evening was one of my darkest. Three months later,
however, through our passion to succeed, we were able to convince
that same investor to give us a second chance. And we nailed the
presentation, having incorporated many of the suggestions he'd
given us at that first meeting. This person has since joined our
advisory board and has been our leading advocate in opening
additional investor doors for us in the Atlanta area.

But second chances are rare. Often, when you bomb with one
investor, word spreads quickly to the others. So how do you make
the most of your investor presentation opportunities? We've
interviewed three top Silicon Valley venture capitalists who can
help you stay away from the following seven "deadly
sins.".

Sean M. Lyden is the
CEO of Atlanta-based PRessCafe.com. He has since landed
his first significant outside investment, largely as a result of
steering clear of these seven deadly sins.

The Seven Deadly Sins

1. Missing the
"a-ha!" "The thing that really kills an
entrepreneur's case is not nailing down their story-not getting
to the 'a-ha!' very quickly in the presentation," says
J. Neil Weintraut, a
general partner at San Francisco venture capital firm 21st Century Internet Venture
Partners. "Instead of [explaining] that you have a
Java-enabled spreadsheet, for example, tell me upfront why
[your business] changes people's lives. We're looking for
something that will knock consumers' socks off."

2. Having an unclear market
focus. "Some [entrepreneurs] come in and say
they're going after a trillion-dollar market," says
Weintraut. "Glad to hear the market is that big, but how does
it connect with your business? What's the market
[segment] you're going after?"

Here's a solution: Break your target market into highly
specific segments. For example, let's say your company targets
the small-business market. There are 25 million small businesses in
the United States, and the SBA
defines them as companies with fewer than 500 employees. However, a
one-person start-up has vastly different needs than a 100-employee
company. Therefore, you would break your market into segments, like
one to four employees, five to nine employees and so forth. Then
you would focus on the one or two segments that will benefit most
from your product or service.

3. Being fluffy. "You
often hear people say 'We have a great management team.'
But don't declare that! Just give me the facts and let me come
to my own conclusion," says Weintraut. Be specific about your
credentials and those of your team members. In what specific ways
did you help your former company be more successful? Did you help
boost sales by 25 percent, for example? Advises Weintraut,
"Say something like 'I was the VP of business development
who contributed to the success of company X in this way.'
"

4. Having poor team
dynamics. "You bring your team but don't
let them say anything. What does that tell you? What kind of team
is this?" poses Rich
Shapero, managing partner at Woodside, California, VC firm
CrossPoint Venture Partners.
"These are good signals. Is this entrepreneur a good leader?
Can he really motivate people? We care not only about the
individual who started the company or is running it but also about
the other people and the chemistry between them."

Andreas Stavropoulos, a
director at Redwood City, California, VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, agrees. "The
team dynamic is very important," he says. "People get so
focused on trying to deliver the message just the right way, they
don't realize that through their interactions, they're
stepping on their partners' toes or cutting them off. That can
be even more important than what they're actually
saying."

5. Being under-prepared.
"What we see in a fair number of situations is that the
entrepreneur doesn't have the [presentation] staged-they
don't know what they're going to do," says Shapero.
"So they come in and start talking casually about the
business, and I'm always mystified because I think, 'Good
God! This was a tough appointment for you to get. I'm assuming
you have planned what you're going to do. What I'm seeing
is that you don't have a clue!' That's pretty
scary."

So how do you ensure you're prepared? Stavropoulos suggests
building a presentation of no more than 10 to 20 PowerPoint slides,
organized around the main points of your business model. But you
should also be flexible enough to deviate from your intended
structure to accommodate investor questions. "We like our
questions answered directly-at the point when [we ask] the
question," says Stavropoulos. "People who say 'Well,
let me just get through my presentation' put the presentation
itself, more than the content, above the substance."

6. Having unrealistic
expectations. Don't expect to walk out of your first
presentation with a check. "That's where a lot of
entrepreneurs get confused," says Shapero. "You're
not going to convince the investor in [the first presentation] to
invest. Instead, your objective is to give investors a high-level
overview that is compelling enough to capture their interest [and
allow you] to go to the next level of detail."

7. Lacking common sense.
Shapero must have seen it all. He's even had entrepreneurs
bring their kids to the presentation. Another tip: "Turn cell
phones off! Don't wait for it to ring to realize it's
on," he says. Of course, you would know better.

Sean M. Lyden

Sean Lyden is the CEO of Prestige Positioning (a service of The Professional Writing Firm Inc.), an Atlanta-based firm that "positions" clients as leading experts in their field-through ghost-written articles and books for publication. Clie...